Residents pay different price for water at Kiosks

Some residents in the peri-urban areas of Blantyre are paying higher water tariffs for water supplied at kiosks than others, The Nation has established.

This was learnt on Friday morning during a meeting of Water Users Associations (WUA) held at the Grace Bandawe conference centre to elect members to run the newly formed umbrella body to look after the issues of WUAs.

Chairperson of Mudi WUA John Chiutsi revealed to The Nation that he has toured several WUAs and observed that some residents are buying a pail of water at K6 while others are getting the same at K9 and above.

“WUAs are operating separately and they just do what pleases their management and this has punished some residents. There is no reason for people accessing water from kiosks to pay different tariffs,” said Chiutsi.

Another participant from Chirimba also revealed that they pay a minimum of K10 for a pail of water and K8 for a small jar.

Blantyre Water Board (BWB) kioks manager Francis Baluwa said he is aware that kiosks are offering different tariffs, but said there are reasons for that.

“Tariffs are not decided by how much they pay to BWB. There are some projects done at WUA level and this influences the committee to adjust their tariffs. However, this should not be the case and if it happens the people should know why they are paying high tariffs for the service,” he said.

Water for People training and capacity building specialist Joseph Magoya whose office is supporting the umbrella body with a K63 million funds from Tilitonse said water tariffs issue is one of the reasons that prompted his office to support the formation of the umbrella body.

“We want uniformity in all activities of WUAs so that all residents have access to good water all the time. We believe the umbrella body will achieve uniformity in quality of services, accountability and transparency and promote independency of WUAs,” said Magoya.

He said the umbrella body will mainly play the advisory role on the activities of the eight WUAs in Blantyre and lobby for support from the corporate world.